The Pinwheel series is a Science Fiction book series written by an author known as Snekguy
. The series takes place in the 2600s and centers around the Coalition, an interstellar multispecies alliance formed as a defense against a species of Insectoid Aliens known as the Betelgeusians.
The series takes its name from the largest space station in Coalition space, officially known as Fort Hamilton but affectionately called the Pinwheel due to its shape.
The books in the series are now listed in the recap.
Not to be confused with Pinwheel.
This book series provides examples of:
- Alien Arts Are Appreciated: Whenever someone from one species experiences art from another species they are almost always impressed.
- Alien Sky: It's a book series where multiple planets are visited so some of these are naturally present. Both Borealis and Krell have Binary Suns for example. Of particular note:
- Kerguela, a habitable moon that orbits a gas giant which itself orbits a binary star system. Said gas giant is very visible in the sky in addition to the suns.
- TRAPPIST-1e, locally known as Reef, a planet that is tidally locked to a star with a total of seven planets orbiting in close proximity, meaning that the sun is always in the same place in the sky and the six other planets are quite visible in the sky.
- Aliens Speaking English: Justified since English is Humanity's lingua franca in the setting and invoked with the Borealans and the Valbarans who learned English from the Humans, as well as the Jarilans who have DNA from their Human "father" that allows them to speak English. Averted, however, with the Brokers and the Krell who are physically incapable of speaking English and require imperfect translation technology in order to effectively communicate with other species, as well as the Betelgeusians who communicate via pheromones and are incapable of speaking at all.
- Artificial Gravity: Used extensively to increase or decrease the gravity within limited areas. AG fields, as they're known, use quantum technology to achieve the effect. The limited area that a single AG field can cover means that Centrifugal Gravity is necessary for some particularly large stations, such as the titular Pinwheel itself.
- Artificial Outdoors Display: The Pinwheel's torus has this, it uses large lamps to mimic the sun, a mural on the ceiling to mimic the sky, and it has buildings made to look like Earthly ones along with potted plants to help sell the illusion of being on a planet.
- Boldly Coming: Most of the main couplings of the series. Sometimes it's inverted and the exceptions are still Interspecies Romances.
- Bug War: The Coalition was founded primarily for the purpose of fighting a hostile species of Insectoid Aliens known as the Betelgeusians.
- Eternal English: In a book series that takes place roughly six-hundred years into the future English is the same as it is now.
- Fantastic Firearms: Being a Science Fiction book series where there is war, there are several types of these:
- Magnetic Weapons: Both types are preferred by the UNN due to their high effective range and penetration.
- Plasma Cannon: Preferred by the Betelgeusians and the Brokers. The UNN will also use plasma weapons in some situations.
- Ray Gun: Until recently, laser weapons were preferred by the Valbarans and they do still use them for some things. The UNN has a microwave weapon used for fighting in Bug tunnels and they have recently started fielding an experimental laser weapon called a Soliton Crystal Pumped Electron Laser (SCPEL or Scalpel for short).
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: Referred to as a jump drive, the component that allows for faster than light is essentially a hybrid of that and a hyperdrive. The ship briefly disappears into Another Dimension, where the laws of physics are different, before reappearing back in regular space lightyears away from where it started. There are both catches and limitations.
- The Federation: Being an interstellar multispecies alliance, the Coalition qualifies as this.
- Force-Field Door: Molecular force-fields are used so that spacecraft hangars can be open to space without the air escaping.
- Insufficiently Advanced Alien: Justified with the Krell and the Borealans, both of whom are technologically primitive but have more advanced allies who can help with space travel. The Krell choose not to advance their society due to not needing or wanting to do so, while the Borealans are modernizing, but slowly. Averted with the other species we've met so far, they're as advanced as you would expect spacefaring species to be.
- Interspecies Romance: Every single book in the series has one or more of these. It's one of the few things that all of the books have in common. Most of the time one of the partners is Human, but not always.
- Male-to-Female Universal Adaptor: All sapient alien species, including Humans, are capable of having sex with each other, although alien interspecies reproduction is impossible without genetic technology.
- One Big Lie: Somewhere between this and Physics Plus. Most of the technology is based on real word technology and science but there are a few things that require made-up natural laws to work, chief among them is the method of Faster-Than-Light Travel.
- Subspace Ansible: Humanity uses quantum entanglement satellites to communicate across lightyears, but said satellites can only send limited amounts of data at a time.
- Translator Microbes: Downplayed. There is translation technology for those species that are incapable of speaking English, but it's imperfect.
- United Nations Is a Superpower: The nations still govern themselves for the most part, but the UN has its own military, primarily the United Nations Navy (UNN), and Humanity is represented by the UN in the Coalition.
